PREP VOLLEYBALL: Jersey, Calhoun win pools at Roxana Tourney

Rebuilding Jersey in title hunt at Roxana

Greg Shashack, gshashack@civitasmedia.com

Published
9:56 pm CDT, Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Jersey’s Mackenzie Thurston (left) hits past the block of EA-WR’s Lexie Johnson during a match last season in Jerseyville. The Panthers and Oilers met again Tuesday night in pool play at the Roxana Tournament. less

Jersey’s Mackenzie Thurston (left) hits past the block of EA-WR’s Lexie Johnson during a match last season in Jerseyville. The Panthers and Oilers met again Tuesday night in pool play at the Roxana ... more

Photo: James B. Ritter/ For The Telegraph

Photo: James B. Ritter/ For The Telegraph

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Jersey’s Mackenzie Thurston (left) hits past the block of EA-WR’s Lexie Johnson during a match last season in Jerseyville. The Panthers and Oilers met again Tuesday night in pool play at the Roxana Tournament. less

Jersey’s Mackenzie Thurston (left) hits past the block of EA-WR’s Lexie Johnson during a match last season in Jerseyville. The Panthers and Oilers met again Tuesday night in pool play at the Roxana ... more

Photo: James B. Ritter/ For The Telegraph

PREP VOLLEYBALL: Jersey, Calhoun win pools at Roxana Tourney

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ROXANA – The East Alton-Wood River Oilers appeared on the verge of the tourney’s biggest single-set surprise Tuesday night at the eighth annual Roxana Tournament.

But with the Oilers in command 19-10, the best player on the court took over for the Jersey Panthers.

Mackenzie Thurston hammered home three of her match-high eight kills during an 11-0 run that propelled the Panthers to a 25-23, 25-15 victory over the Oilers.

“She’s unbelievable,” EA-WR coach Patti Scott said of Thurston. “And I thought we competed against her well. A lot of teams would back down, be scared. I didn’t see that. We held our own there. But we don’t have that killer instinct yet. We’ve got a brand new team. I lost 10 players.”

The rebuilding Oilers went 0-2 in pool play, with the Gillespie Miners winning 28-26, 19-25, 17-15 in EA-WR’s opening match. Jersey beat Gillespie 25-21, 26-24 to advance to the semifinals against Mount Olive at 12:30 p.m. Saturday in Roxana’s small gym.

Defending tournament champion Calhoun got a big night from Grace Baalman and also advanced to the gold bracket by beating Bunker Hill 25-11, 25-20 and Dupo 25-5, 25-10 to give new coach Kerry Lorton her first victories. The Warriors will play Roxana in a 12:30 p.m. semifinal in Milazzo Gym on Saturday.

With just three regulars returning from last season in Thurston, Kate Walsh and Faith Franke, Jersey is also in rebuild mode. And despite tentative stretches, the Panthers attained their Day 1 goal.

“We wanted to be 2-0,” Jersey coach Bob Siemer said. “I think we’ll get better. But it’s a lot better to be 2-0 than anything else.”

The Panthers survived a fight to put away Gillespie in two sets.

“We did what we had to do,” Siemer said. “Faith Franke and Jessica Vetter did a great job at the net against Gillespie.”

EA-WR used a five-point service run including two aces from sophomore Madison Voudrie to take a 14-7 advantage over the Panthers. Two kills from Morgan Moxey and a Lauren Robinson ace grew the Oilers’ lead to nine points.

But with Walsh on the service line, the Panthers built momentum that included Thurston’s kills and Franke’s two blocks and one kill, flipping a 19-10 deficit into a 21-19 lead. “Kate Walsh bailed us out,” Siemer said of the senior setter’s serving.

EA-WR would regain leads at 22-21 and 23-22, but Thurston closed with a kill and an ace before Alli Bohannon’s kill won the opening set for Jersey.

“She’s probably the best player in the tournament,” Siemer said of Thurston, while also adding Calhoun’s Baalman to that conversation. “(Thurston) can jump out of the gym. We’ve got to get her moving around to where she’s not hitting into a double block all the time.”

“They played pretty good,” Siemer said of his sophs. “They were nervous as a cat coming down and yesterday at practice. But we told them, we wouldn’t be playing you if we didn’t think you could do the job. They did all right.”

EA-WR’s coach also saw positives from their season’s opening night. She just hopes lessons were learned from coughing up a 19-10 lead.

“I just told them, they have to learn to finish,” Scott said. “They can hang in there, they know how to fight back. But once they’re ahead, they don’t know how to end it. They don’t have to let them back in. But in Jerseyville’s behalf, boy when they get in that one rotation, they’re hard to beat.”

Greg Shashack may be reached at 618-798-1486 or on Twitter @gregshashack